yeah, you've got a little bit of ways to go there. so where were you in relation to where you are now? are you on arsenal? >> when the shooting happened, we were actually right at laurels, the scene of last night's shooting, talking to a resident with the rear window shot out. >> you heard the gun shots? just looking on the map, it's not that i mean, it's not terribly far away. it's certainly, i'm -- i don't know, about a quarter of a mile, i'm guessing, when you heard rapid fire, when you believe sounded like fireworks? >> absolutely. very clearly and as i said, ironically, after listening to the recording of last night's shooting, the guy with us is playing it and we heard it in the distance and he said that is what it sounded like, it sounded

like that. we were listening to rapid fire, gunfire of last night's recordings. i'm arriving on the back end of the scene with flashing lights. >> there's a big scene where there's a number of officers in the streets, you can hear the sirens, we are looking a a number of unmarked and marked police vehicles. just said he was in the area where there may have been 200 rounds fired. we are seeing an ambulance here. >> dan, as we remind our viewers, this gun shot happening less than an hour after the -- >> lock down was lifted in wauter sown. >> yeah. so 6:00 they had the pressing where they started with the words that they did not have apprehnesion, but they listed the stay in doors request, said that people should stay alert, but they could not keep the city in a state of lockdown.

keep track of your surroundings, and they had information that made it appropriate to lift this -- >> whatever you need. >> that is our local affiliate in boston, whdh, with our news, that -- that is that there was a barrage of gunshots. that has been happening as the lockdown was lifted. obviously the potential for civilians in any kind of line of fire is heightened. we have about here before, where there was a standoff and he eluded authorities. hard to say this is the moment where they are getting him. but that is activity that we have not -- that we have not seen that all take. >> we don't know what is happen

tlg. >> but what they are rolling out there is, basically the ar mored car for the police. you saw one policeman there to the right, looks like he has his firearm and side arm drawn. there's definite police activity there, and one wonders is this -- >> is this it? >> is this the moment? >> even after they -- let's assume that they apprehend him, dead or alive, does it mean that everything is over? or is there another hunt for a potential people that helped this individual and now his dead brother in all of these acts here? >> right. we just had a briefing from the head of the massachusetts state police about an hour ago, in which he said that they searched a 20 street area, search that in miss words was not fruitful. so it's interesting that have essentially widened the search to the state of massachusetts, that activity would once again start right in watertown. >> we have many guests all day

long, and we have spoken to them, about the importance of getting the suspect alive. now, it may not our decision or law enforcement's decision if you understand what i mean. but to get him alive, to question him. did you work with anybody? most importantly, carl and melissa. why? there was no political message here. no banner s flown, just destruction and death. >> so in terms of the willingness of being taken alive. you have to consider that considering the brazenness of the two. they went ahead and attacked officers at m.i.t. so they are willing to go down for whatever cause that they have. whether it be just for themselves. >> a defenseless police officer in a police car, a 26-year-old that was best friends with the officer that is in critical

condition. no question, that these two guys are cowards, i think we can agree with that. they do not stand up for their actions, they run off. >> it was said that police are beginning to dismantle the infrastructure that they had set up all day long. the worry about public safety is large. because of the public being allowed back on the street, they did cancel the red sox game, and the bruins game. boston is becoming a populated outdoor space. and this is the activity that you are not looking for in terms of public safety. >> and you have to wonder if the authorities engineered this in some way. and within an hour after that, have the suspect flushed out. so, you know, it's a fascinating scene, of course, we don't know for sure, of course, it's a fluid situation of course. but we don't know if the suspect is somewhere there. so that's the other question

that we will have to figure out over the next -- >> and guys, keep in mind, 25 minutes to sun down. the weather, i checked it out. supposed to be low 50 and is raining. so if he is outside, it will be more difficult for him. he will be cold and wet and hungry. and it's going to be dark which makes it more difficult for law enforcement as well. you see the live feed, more law enforcement arriving at the skoon. we saw dozens of vehicles there, with armored law enforcement vehicles. and the truck arriving and a lot of activity again in watertown, within minutes, less than an hour on lock down. all day long we have been looking at the result of months of drills and months of planning, preparation that municipal police departments do all around the country and it's been pointed out again and again today, the level of fire power

that they got together in watertowne, comparing it to the things that you would see from navy s.e.a.l.s. if you were worried about there not being enough assets in place, that was not the issue there today. we do want to take you to a nbc special in new york city, bringing us the latest from boston. >> welcome in the rest of the nbc network. >> this is an nbc news special report, here is brian williams. >>. >> we welcome our viewers who have just joining us at 7:07 p.m. on the east coast, one hour ago, public safety officials starting with the governor of the common wealth of massachusetts, governor patrick, said to the million or so people who on have been under orders to stay in doors all day, that in

their view because of information he they had regarding the investigation, it was okay to come out. while no one expected the population to come streaming out of their homes, the ban was lifted and no more than 30 minutes after that announcement came first reports gunfire again. it's the younger brother who has been on the loose all day and considered very simply the most wanted, most sought after man in the nation tonight. carrie sanders moved to watertown last night, following the initial crime at m.i.t., the murder of a police officer, the shootout, the explosions of bombs in the streets. carrie is back on the street corner in watertown as every police vehicle in the state

arrives there all over again. >> reporter: let me reset the scene for you. people were streaming out, it was their first opportunity to leave the neighborhood since this took place. we heard a barrage of gunfire that was followed by a steady stream of police cars. coming down here and working their way around the back side, making their way down there, looks like it's 2-1/2 blocks down the street here. they are looking for a suspect. it's a suspect who they believed for most of the day, everyoning, into the day was up here hiding in a neighborhood. possibly hiding in the backyard, in a shed, in the bushes. they went through the neighborhood, very thoughtfully, 20 streets, sometimes going inside people's homes. other times look engine and around their homes.

but looking for this suspect. and finally they had lifted that, that order telling people to be in their homes and boom, what we saw happen down here and we are watching this unfold right now. as you point out, officers do not pull their guns and fire unless they have a reason to. many officers spend an entire career where they do not pull the trigger except on the gun range and here we hear a barrage of gunfire, quite frankly that is some of the gun fire that we heard initial from when they fled m.i.t. and headed into watertown. it was that much gun fire. >> how close are you to the charles river? >> reporter: you know, the water is right down there, it's not that far, if we start running, we could probably make it there in ten minutes. >> more on that after this. you may have to.

there's a report that a lot of in is now taking place, you see the anti-gunfire shield there as some of the swat team members arrive. we are going to -- when the shot comes up again, when their live coverage comes up again from watertown, we are going to join new england cable news, they have been covering this story a blanket basis. so, you see the portable shields and the tactical gear arriving, we still see the back of the ambulance open. but it's close enough to the charles river, we had a report that some of this was playing out along the water there. which would be to the right and down the hill. lester holt, can you lend anything more to this? >> reporter: there was high ranking police officers that came walking up the street after several police cars came by, i asked did you get them, did you get them, give me a thumbs up or down, and they gave me a stern

look and kept going. the activity we've seen is going in many different directions. we have seen police cars go that way and that way as if they are creating a perimeter around what ever is happening. i saw an explosive disposal vehicle come this way. we did not hear the shot, but we saw the reaction. we saw police cars tear out of here. the crowd, we did not have a crowd all day because of the lockdown, but an hour ago, they lifted the lock down. people cheered the police officers when they saw them tear off. they understood or believed that maybe this was coming to an end. and so they actually cheered as the police cars went out of here. we are seeing emergency vehicles staging in that direction, in this direction and that direction perhaps consistent with fears of explosives, creating a perimeter around whatever is happening. there was -- the police officers in the streets their radios were

up, i was trying to eavesdrop, i thought i heard the word ambulance a couple of times. cannot know what that meant. we are trying to piece things together though. a tremendous amount of activity right now. >> from your camera, what direction is this shot we are looking at? >> reporter: okay, so we are looking west, i'm on arsenal here, this is school street, on the other side here is the charles river, but the charles river goes down and it sort of curves as we go down west and as we go down 2-1/2, three blocks down there, that is where several roads converge and that's where the charles river makes a -- >> okay. thank you, we are going to now, as promised dip into the live coverage from new england cable news. as they have a helpful map there on the screen. >> how serious they seem to be

about the matterers at hand. >> what is that? >> well, that was a fortuitous time to dip into the new england cable news, we apologize for the communication that we aired during a mix up that was on their part. we should probably get this on the air, it's a google earth map, sitting hering looking myself and we are from the location of all these vehicles. a matter of blocks down to the south to the charles river. which of course runs from boston out to the west to watertown. lester holt? >> reporter: ambulance came through, brian, i thought i heard something, the police radioed an ambulance moving in that direction. whatever is happening appears to be happening around the bend.

on the opposite direction, i saw an oed vehicle, moving around and program ls -- perhaps will come on the other side. piecing these things together, they would want to create a perimeter if they think explosives are involved. that may be what we are seeing right here. the action is moving in many different directions right now, brian. we saw the ambulance staging, it's not going to a scene, it's staged beyond us, 100 yards beyond us in the same area that we saw, some of the high ranking police officers we saw go. people are on the streets watching this. the lockdown was lifted and the streets are filling up with the anticipation that something is about to happen or maybe has happened. >> it's a weird case where you are there, lester and by the fact that we are looking at a camera shot, all the way zoomed in, we can soo he a lot and we

can see enough to know that since we have first been on the shot, there's the yellow police tape, since we have been first on the shot, we have seen a couple of waves of law enforcement go down and to the right. everybody of course in-tact ical gear and heavily defended. >> we don't know yet if there's been a conclusion to this. all we know is for the second time in less than 24 hours, gunfire has been heard in watertown, massachusetts. what do you see? >> reporter: well, brian, the police officers that were making their way down there and it was a continual flow, appeared to have have made their way into the area. it's well down here, this is arsenal street, if you are to

continue down there, several blocks down, it takes a bit of a jog and that's where the charles river turns and it appears that that is where all of the activity was focused. now, if that fire -- if the gunfire, which was a strong burst of gunfire, if it was coming from 2-1/2 blocks, it was very loud here. we could hear it. it startled us. it sounded a lot like the begunfire we had last night when the suspects were engaging with the police officers who were pursuing them. so, there's a tremendous amount of anxiety here, but it appeared to have been relieved. residents were told that they can for the first time actually leave their homes after the sweeps were completed and people were told to remain. folks were told, they put another shelter in place order. that is down franklin and this direction, and the officers have really moved to a location where

we are waiting to derp whether they've found the suspect and if they have found the suspect, have they been able to engage him and he alive, in custody or dead? >> again, relying on common sense, i mean, you just don't fire a shot in watertown tonight unless you have reason to. and all of the law enforcement in place along with other indications we are getting, it would indicate that this activity surrounds a sighting of our suspect. easily the most hunted, most wanted man in the country tonight. again, 9,000 estimated law enforcement personnel in just the state of massachusetts this evening. the investigation brought them a all different directions earlier today. a train that got as far south at

board walk was stopped and searched. it was tough to fly out of boston today. as of tonight, you still cannot get on an amtrak train in new york and go north. it started with the i.d. of the suspects, starting with those photos. let's dip into our local nbc station, whdh tv in boston. they have been covering this nonstop. >> after this massive sweep through the homes, and this happens. >> yes. the laurel street had just been let in, but the other homes, the people were inside them. this is 4 or 5 blocks away at least from laurel street, but i belief it would be in the 20-block zone that investigators said they searched, and they felt they had done it -- not certain, but it appears that it's in that 20 block zone that they searched and thought they

had eliminated the possibility of the suspect there. >> looking at the map, arsenal street is south of the laurel street area, if you move further west, the streets circle a lot, i would say quarter of a mile, 8 to 10 blocks, likely in that perimeter that they said they were checking. the irony of it, they were just over on laurel street, and you are talking to people that are getting back in their homes only to hear shots as you are having the conversation. >> we are a couple of blocks from the charles river. let's go back to lester holt, what indications are you getting there? >> picking up little bits and pieces of the police officer in the street keeps his radio up loud. which is helpful, we heard a call go out to officers to everyone wee lined the white house, evacuate. i don't know which house that white house is. but they are trying get their

officers away from something that that area that either puts them in the line of fire or some other danger involving the suspect. so, you can see the police officers have -- who have been in the streets all day. watching, you know, keeping people back, certainly their tension has gown right now, they anticipate something on the move right now, and many of them, i don't think are quite in the loop as well. but they know something is up, as a lot of vehicles are moving through here, brian. >> we know from scanner traffic that a call has gone out for the bomb disposal unit right down where the camera shot is, we are concentrating on frankly listening to -- >> that would be the white house. yeah, that's right. listening to the communications has been very helpful to the news media. allowing us to know how to follow this story. one scanner website i was on last night. i happened to notice, there were 100,000 users on it at the same

time last night. pete williams justice correspondent in washington, has been also seeking for information on what it is that we may be watching here, pete? >> well, in an event like this, brian, sometimes it takes a time for the reports to get here to headquarters. what we have been told is, that the word is, shots fired. that was the first information that came back here and the second was, body found in a boat. now, i heard that you were told that this location is right here the water. so, it's not clear to me whether the boat is in the water or the boat is in somebody's garage or somebody's backyard being stored. and in any event, i think the telling word is body. body found in a boat. and they as you know have sent in the swat teams and the bomb teams, i assume as a precaution,

just to make sure that the situation is over. but we don't have are an identity on the body. we don't know who it is. or whether the body is the result of the shooting. that would seem to be the logical conclusion. >> pete, right where they are in watertown, the charles river takes a dramatic dip to the south. it does widen there. but to your point, you are absolutely right. a lot of people have boats on trailers in their yards. not quite the season for that yet, and but then again, there's a lot of activity on the charles river. the scale of this map is too broad to zoom in. >> i'm sure what stands out to you and it does to me, they contrast with the pictures we saw earlier today. for example, outside the house, where everyone was in a tactical position for a long time. this is a picture of people

waiting. this is a picture of people waiting for the word from the team that presumabliy lwent to e boat to find out. it seemed that they all fully anticipate that whatever danger there was has passed. this is a group of people waiting to get the word. and we are too. >> yeah of course that's right. i mean, whatever activity is happening at the own perimeter and this is all the folks that weren't needed down there, lester holt, anything over that police radio? >> no. no, nothing at all. they are seeming to hold this as one of the perimeters, what we are seeing seems consistent with concern about an explosive device, the way they are staging it. and i mentioned, and we heard about something about the white house, and we are seeing it, we saw the porch of it in the shot a few minutes ago. but they have, the emergency vehicles have been moving out in different directions, they seem

to be splitting up the area around the bend here. which i believe leads to the picture that you have got on the left side of the screen here. and this looks more like a holding operation right now of course like they are waiting for the eod, there is what i assume is the white house, and the word we heard, everyone behind the white house, evacuate. as we speak here, a city bus is coming in with more officers throughout the day. you will see it in a consecutive. the city buses bringing in more police officers, in fact these are boston police officers that are being brought to the area. all of this taking place, just a little over an hour ago from that news conference from where they were going to drop down the police presence, lift the lockdown and allow people on the streets. people were just coming on the streets when suddenly all this -- all this activity and people began to cheer as they saw the police spring into action sensing that they were perhaps going to bring all this

to a safe conclusion and now, so they are bringing in more officers. this is the most officers they have seen on this corner all day long. clearly ready to secure -- secure the area around whatever is happening. >> a wave of reinforcements from bpd, while from the other end, we see police officers seemingly coming back out, one of them with that familiar shot gun drawn. again, let's dip into the coverage of whdh tv, going on life. >> escorted by the officers after i saw some of the officers sweep in there. that's a big question, you have, as you said, 14 houses or so, and lights on in the houses many of them, so we wonder if there were people inside them as officers move in and try to search them. a tense situation, and some residents happy, running away

from the scene of attention. >> these families may have had a small sense of comfort when the stay inside request was lifted but seeing the sights and hearing the sounds is frightening i'm sure. we should mention we have four reporters right there in the area. we spoke to steve cooper who was the first television, if not reporter, to connect the dots last night with the shooting of the m.i.t. police officer with the two suspects being the suspect ises number one and two wanted in the marathon bombing. and steve did say earlier, that they believe that this is the second suspect -- suspect is number two. we have steve back on the phone. can you confirm that for us, steve? >> reporter: what i can confirm at this hour, according to a source is what they believe that they've is -- they believe it to be the second suspect in a boat at this location on franklin street. there's a helicopter overhead

and the original call that they sieved. they were acting on a tip that someone saw they saw a ladder near the boat and the ladder was not there earlier. they went to the scene and opened fire and held back. and their concern right now is whether or not the person on board the boat has explosives. when i say the person, they are going under the idea that it's suspect number two here that they have been looking for all day. they have a helicopter, they can see he is moving. so he is alive. but the big concern is whether or not he is armed or he is -- has explosives on him. and obviously the reason for that is because of what they were dealing with last night. they have the area surrounds. and we are a couple of streets back and all we have heard from neighbors were the frighten sounds of you know, the multiple shots that they heard, but again, now this whole area has been quickly sealed off. and then they are sort of in a

waiting pattern and the reason they are not moving in, they have the subject surrounded. he is not going anywhere, but the question is whether or not he is armed with explosives. >> wow, first of all, for a neighbor to be that observant to see imagine a boat with a tarp in a backyard, to notice a ladder had all of a sudden been added to the scene. and not thinking twice, made the call. the helicopter is showing that the suspect in the boat, which we believe to be the second bombing suspect is still alive. and i wonder, steve, what exactly -- what kind of shots may they have fired. would they for sure know in fact who was hiding in that boat when they started taking fire? >> and why they started firing? and again, initially we heard that they fired shots and then they pulled back and then we heard that there was some secondary shots that we were

told were nonlethal bullets. again, these are swat teams that raced to the scene so fast, and it happened literally just at the end -- this happened just at the end of you know, the news conference. literal literally, we were standing there outside the mall. and as quickly as we were standing there, things were breaking up in a few moments and then the swat teams were racing down arsenal street. every road was sealed off and again, that was when it all went down. and again, all the people, resident ares that we are talking to, describing the same thing, hearing a bunch of shots going off. again, according to my source, the reason they are not moving right in, and approaching the boat right now is because of this whole thing. the guys were loaded with explosives, they were throwing them out the window. they had a pressure cooker -- >> steve, steve, we have to interrupt you. i apologize.

we will check in with you a moment ago. we have to get back to dan, dan has updated information for us. >> reporter: another reason that the officers may be waiting to move in, they want to get the civilians clear of the area. if anything like what steve described happened. we saw officers carrying what appeared to be young women in their arms the entire distance. they appear to be in pajamas, or they were disabled or sleeps and could not get out of there. the officers carried them quickly 100 yards to safety. with some other young people who could move following them behind. so the effort continues to clear civilians out of the area while officers hope to deal with this, just the suspect and them. >> i guess if they have the boat and it covered and they know they have a suspect inside, that is a big cavity in there. who knows what else and i guess they have to take every precaution, we have seen the

power of -- >> a couple of things here, number one, remember all the families in watertown have been inside their structures all day. and let's think about families with kids and the kind of stamp, depending on their age, knowing only that there's either a bad man outside or some other reason they cannot go out on a perfectly good friday. number two, pete williams, i would say 20 years ago, the arrival of nightfall would have been a bad thing, but now that law enforcement has such capability from the air, they will have eyes on all this, they will have night vision, often it's the suspects that think they are unseen. and make a mistake. so, i don't think net, net, it's that bad a thing that we are getting toward the end of daylight here. >> reporter: yes, i think that is true and what we are being told by federal officials, we do

see something, someone in the boat, they are not rushing up to it. they are going slowly and want to mistake sure there's no bombs and there's hundreds of officers there they are saying. so no one here seems to know the identity of the person in the boat. i doubt anyone does. but they are movely slowly, because they know if it's the person they are looking for, it's a person who has used explosives several times before and even was throwing them at police less than 24 hours ago. >> so, it is confirmation that what we are looking at is kind of the second rung, the outer rim and the guys, there you see the cambridge bomb squad, a big stop in watertown -- >> one other thing. >> go ahead. >> we were told that the officers who were nearby can see arms or legs from the boat. they know there's somebody in

there. >> lester holt, you are across from the town diner, i believe? >> reporter: yeah, we trained the camera, cambridge bomb squad, their bomb squad truck just rolled in here. it's staging on this understand, as everything is seeming to stage. the ambulance came in, there seems to be several staging spots around the area, action right now. including the bomb squad vehicle that rolled in with several other vehicles right now. they are clearly setting up a perimeter around whatever activity is. the center of it is the shot of the white older frame house. it's off the right of the picture there. whatever is happening we believe is going on just beyond that -- behind the homes there. we saw another explosive ordinance disposal vehicle, i belief affiliated with the boston pd moving in. you are seeing so many different agencies that converged here,

state, federal and local. and we have seen almost all boston pd, this is the city of watertown, of course, it's a city. boston pd, they are supplementing their small police force, we are told, the massachusetts state police are bringing a bomb ballistics team, and their most elite swat team. there were three choppers here before the shots were heard. and it was interesting, because it was all following the end of the news conference in which the police were going to stand down the presence a bit here and let people go about and get on with their lives. many of the people are standing here with us right now. they are watching the same amount of anticipation we are. a lot of folks have told me, it was a tough night here last night. a lot of them heard the shots and explosions and some were

awakened by robo calls from their town, letting them know they needed to shelter in place. it's not a call you want to get, but they got it. and most of the people stayed inside all day, glued to the tv and then they got the word from officials here that they have done all that they can and that they thought the suspect would probably remain in massachusetts because his ties are here. and in fact, based what we are seeing here, he has not only remained in massachusetts, he has remained in the neighborhood where he led police on the chase last night and that vicious, vicious gun battle. then the brace eng-- the brazent away. when he got in the suv and blew past the police line. all day long, they were under the idea that he remained in the neighborhood. they were going door to door, and not long, before we came on for nightly news, the swat team was working the homes right across from them. going in the backyards. carefully training their guns on

windows, and they have done it all day, going door to door. building to building, looking for sign of this individual and now it sounds like they may have him in their sights if not figu figuratively or literally. >> i'm closer than anybody else to it and right now, we are in a hold pattern. and not a lot of activity. >> dan, talk about, it looks, it looks as if it's getting significantly darker. >> reporter: yeah, it definitely is, it's making it a bit harder minute by minute. you never know if they for any reason think it works to their advantage. the cover of darkness with them as they move around. but they did not appear to be in a sense of urgency to get up there themselves. remember, many of the officers have night vision goggles and so

that's going give them an advantage. so, tactically we are not sure whether they feel that it's to their advantage or disadvantage. and of course, they don't want the suspect to know that either. right now, they did not appear to have a sense of urgency. they have control of the entire neighborhood. there's no question, if he is in there, it seems unlikely that he will get away this time. >> just bringing our viewers up to speed here. if you are just joining us, we have live continuing coverage of the boston marathon man hunt. the search for the second suspect appears to -- >> we will do the same thing, here is what we believe we know right now. this is watertown, massachusetts, we have a shots fired and a trailered boat in the backyard of what appears to be a multi-story house. this is a picture from google earth. we have highlighted the trailers

boat in green. it's an over grown residential street, turns to the left at the upper left of the screen. we have an individual, believed to be in the boat. originally under a tarp. shots were fired. there are conflicting reports as to whether he is stationary or moving. conflicting reports a as to whether he or parts of his body are visible. whether the tarp is still in place. apparently we can thank a sharp eyed woman, maybe the occupant of the house for noticing something was amiss. this is happening in watertown, mass, not far from the charles river, but not far from the population hub of the town. pete williams has been working the story from his end in washington as well, pete? >> reporter: something to think

about here, brian as we watch this unfold, there's a belief that in the encounter, that he was wounded. he was driving the car that they carjacked in which he and his brother fled from cambridge to watertown, when it was stopped by police, there were like 200 rounds, they said, were fired back and forth between the men and police there. he managed to get away in the car. his brother got out and was killed. but he managed to get away and abandoned the car a short time later. looking at the car, and looking at the scene around the car and where they think he went. they said there was blood, so they believed he was wounded. how serious it is of course they don't know. that is something to bare in mind here. >> 200 rounds, some of the rounds i saw still pictures of and on television. ranged from, there were some 9

milimeter and some larger to the caliber of the police assault style weapon. a whole lot of rounds, even in a war zone, saying nothing of a residential street in watertown, massachusetts, and it's true, there have been reports today that he left a blood trail behind, of course, on his way out of the street, his brother who had multiple gun shot wounds, younger brother runs over the older brother, in the vehicle, in a -- kind of a scene out of a movie where vehicles were arranged in a v against him, with just room enough for one car to get through, doors came flying off of vehicles, windows were shotout, just an incredible sight. terrifying for the families last night. doesn't get much better for the folks in watertown, mass tonight

unless we get a good resolution for this. we were saying during the day today, pete correct me if i'm wrong, it was their preference to get him alive. to find out what on earth would have motivated two young men, raised in america, this one apparently a umass college student to put a bomb down in front of innocent people at the finish line at the boston marathon? >> and a federal official just sent out an e-mail message saying we are taking care to do it right. so they are obviously moving very, very slowly. to make sure everything is in place before they go in because of the concern of the bombs and think about the fact that not only do they know the potential of destruction that these two are capable of building after seeing the bombs going off at the marathon, but today, they were throwing additional small bombs at police. small pipe bombs with wiley

coyote type fuses that you light and throw out. large metallic fire crackers and today they up found a bomb in a pressure cooker. one of them took it out of a car, when the police encountered them in watertown, these are people that know how the use and build explosives. and they know what the explosive potential could be. that is why they are taking it so deliberately. >> pete, the fact that you are able to still throw a wiley coyote reference in thereafter all the hours you hav been up, more power to you. i got an e-mail myself going along with everything that you are saying. the word is, believe it's him, slow going here. that's exactly what pete williams just pointed out, our senior investigateive correspondent michael isikoff is with us. michael, what can you add?

>> well, it is quite a scene here, choppers above, massive police presence. they have got the area, i'm just down the street from there and we believe the suspect is, we can't get too close because they have got it walled off. what is interesting is, it looks like hundreds of people have come out now that they can leave their homes all watching and waiting for what they -- everybody hopes is the end of this whole is saga. >> michael, part of our team descending once again on watertown, mass, and remember the timeline last night. a lot of people on the east coast watching the late local news, went to bed only knowing that there was something terribled that happened on the campus of m.i.t.

a police officer was hit and we later learned killed. and as one or two boston reporters pointed out, the scene there went very cold. all the personnel pulled out of there in a hurry. that is because they learned on of a carjacking and a robbery and then shots were fired and three explosions were heard on the streets of watertown. so, the story moved all the journalists moved along with it, we moved along with it in the middle of the night and carrie. it went on to the fact, to the point that you have been on the ground at least twice today, having gotten a tad too close. >> and when i heard the gunfire, i hit the deck again, because i was not sure where it was coming from. hundreds of officers are around that area where it's believed that the suspect is hole today up in the boat or under -- holed up in that boat or under that

boat or by that boat. as they were doing their sweeps today, here and in cambridge, they came across seven ieds, so that is the caution here. as you both have heard from your sources, they are going to do it slowly, they do not want to approach the suspect, they believe it is him, too quickly. he may try to detonate something to take himself out and those that approach him. they have him in a position where there's nowhere he can go and so there's no reason for them to move too quickly to get in there. they have to determine whether he has something and it's been a long day for them, if you imagine, he has been on the run, probably has had no food and no act he is to water. it was hot today, it's chilly now, i'm sure his mind is running a million different directions. he is cornered. looks like it's over for him. so an exhausted desperate man is

holed up with the police officers, and they have him trapped and they have the night vision gear, they can see every move that he makes. he will not be able to do the same. >> and he is likely wounded if reports are to be believed. i want to rerack something that we just aired, it aired unreferenced. if we can. it's video that our station whdh is pointing out. they have exclusively. look at this. this is from -- let's listen. well, we will get there. appears to be shot, if i'm correct, from the top of a live truck mast that they use to get the signals. often they stick the camera at the top to get a high shot. anyway, it appears to be the white wood frame house. and if i'm not mistaken, there's

audio in the background yet again of gunfire being exchanged yet again. whatever it was, they rolled up fast. there was a ford f-150 that clearly came up on the scene at an odd angle that was parked on a diagonal as we went to the shot, looked like it could have been the personal car of somebody like the police chief or a volunteer firefighter. they came up on it fast. when first reports came out of shots fired and we don't yet know, all right, here, let's take a look and listen to this video again. [ gunfire ]

>> if anyone survives that, that sounded -- >> well, there you have it. again, that's a couple of magazines, semiautomatic fire. hard to tell if it's -- if it's long barrel weapons or not. but that's someone firing with intent and again, the report came in that this woman, the home owner, i believe, noticed something amiss with the boat that is trailered in her backyard. >> well, if you consider that everyone has been on edge and the authorities have told everyone that they are the eyes and ears. and that has been the case since the marathon bombings. for a resident to look in the backyard and see something that looked amiss, and in this case it was a ladder that was now in a different place near the boat. that could be something you normally overlook, but not right now, not when people are paying attention to every detail. the people have been in their

homes all day and all night, it was only until 6:00 that they were given the word that they would be a able to leave their homes. as they were getting in their cars and leaving, we saw a lot of smiles, they have been cooped up and they were fearful, there was word that someone was out there dangerous to them. when they got the word to leave their homes, they got the sense that that danger had disappeared. then this. so kudos to the person that alerted the authorities immediately and did not stick their nose in to see what was happening. >> this is supposed to be what happens when you release photos. you do not want people to do something themselves. they have been clear, people should take no action beyond what this woman did, she saw something. she said something and now the eyes of the nation are once again on watertown, mass, pete

williams, what is have you learned? >> just a bit of extra deal from the police department up there. they say, that they are strongly believe that he is wounded. he is hit is the phrase they use. and they believe he has probably been there for much of the day. they first flew over with a helicopter and checked it with thermal imaging and that confirmed that someone was there. and as they watched, they said the person in the boat was not moving but perhaps in response to the sound of the police helicopters and the arriving officers, he started to move and he is moving now. >> have i heard more rounds? >> no more shots from here, from where i am. i saw family members walking through here on foot, which i really are have not seen a whole lot of. a lot of people have been in cars. no shots fired. not from where i am.

>> okay our camera man, both are reporting from where they are. and they have heard more rounds in the last 30 seconds. lester, anything from where you are? >> no -- here is michael. >> let's bring in michael on the phone. >> reporter: yeah, within the last minute, we heard three or four shots and then silence and another shot shortly that, about 10 or 15 seconds after that. we don't know who is shooting at who. we don't know, we can't see it, but it did startle a lot of people who thought this was all about coming to an end, and then, we heard those gunshots. so, i'm looking now, i see, you know, the sirens, lights are still flashing, but no sign of

panic or alarm among the plooers. so i'm not quite sure, what we should make of that. >> you are he hearing it now? >> yes, i'm hearing more shots right now. okay. we just heard, it was like seven or eight shots that i think i counted out there and now it's silent again. yes, the shots off in the distance. okay, now it's silent again. yeah. i'm not hearing anymore shots now. i counted at least eight shots and before that i think i counted four. so a total of 12 shots really in the last couple of moments here. >> like a weapon on automatic or were they singled? >> no, it sounded like semiautomatic, it sounded like deliberate single pulling of a trigger as if it was being targeted it sounded and this is hard to conclude this far away, it sounded like one way. it had the similar sound of the same sort of caliber weapon. >> yeah.

>> did not sound like it was a back and forth exchange. >> yeah, i get it. >> we will listen for a moment here, going to let a little silence be here. okay. well i'm not hearing anything more, brian. i'm not sure whether we will hear more gunfire or not. we have our ears open and if we hear more, i will flag you. >> okay, yeah, give us a shout if you do. let's go the lester, lester anything on your end? >> reporter: no, it was faintly heard here, i had my ear piece in and did not hear it. no, don't hear anything from here right now. everything is -- basically what you are seeing right now is this has become a very, very specialized operation now.

okay, that's the chopper we're hearing now. this has become very specialized. most of the police are holding perimeters. it will involve swat teams and disposal teams and we have seen a lot of canine units here, who may be put into use some level, either to determine if the suspect is alive or dead or to determine if there are explosives with him. hear it? >> lester, i have a woman on with us from the neighborhood. rebecca krieger, can you hear me? >> hello? >> hi, rebecca, this is brian williams, are you on basically the same street as the house. >> caller: yes, i'm on the

street behind. >> what has been happening. >> caller: there was a bunch of shots less than a block away from me, they were very rapid, a bunch, quickly and then a bunch of police cars, probably 40 swarmed the area. and then since then, there have just been cops piling out of the cars and running towards what seems to be the suspect with pointed guns and you know, running in and running out. it's very scary. there's a lot going on. there are helicopters overhead. and there have been those trucks that have like a jail cell in them, they have been coming in and out. and it's getting dark, which is adding to everything. >> you familiar with this trailered boat in your neighbor's yard. >> caller: i have passed by that house almost every day my entire life. so i have seen the boat before. but never really -- those neighbors. >> it's sick, we are looking right at it, google street view

image, proof there's no privacy anymore. right down somebody's driveway at the trailored boat. you can see standard vessel with a visible windshield and a tarp where someone would hide. rebecca, for our audience, police are -- >> caller: okay, thank you, bye. >> we just lost rebecca, that they do believe that it's him. meaning the suspect here. this is the first time we have kind of been told that for air. our thanks to rebecca krieger in that neighborhood where, boy, talk about being on a hair trigger, in watertown, mass, so pete, we i'm to have a coalescing of forces allowing us to say what we are saying here.

>> yes, beginning with, i think one of the telling points is, that this body, this person, that was detected in the boat, you had the woman call engine saying she saw blood and then the police come over with a helicopter, and do a thermal imaging to see if there's someone in the boat and they confirm it and that is why they decided to come in and it seems to me that one of the most telling things is, a, why would someone be hiding in her boat and the fact that she saw blood on the ground and on the tarp of the boat and the fact that not only have there been reports that he was wounded but we have been hearing it from government officials all day long that he was wounded. as to one of the noises a moment ago, described as something like a boom and not a -- and not a shot, one of the -- one of my officials i have been talking about, said they may have is been using what they call flash bangs, which is the grenade that

is intended to disorient people. they emit a loud noise and a bright flash and it can be temporarily blinding to someone and very disorienting to hear that sound. they believe there may have been some of those used as well by the authorities. >> yeah, interestingly those are normally used at a point where they decide to move in because they have the advantage knowing they are going to set it off. they move in under that cover and i'm wonder if that was followed then by the automatic weapon burst or the single shots we heard. of course, it's, again, folks just joining us, we are coming up on the 8:00 hour on the east coast. this has been a -- this has been a violate business, our death toll since monday after all has been 5 people. we have close to 50 people still getting treatment in boston. this has now taken up